


Special Circumstance

by SpencerMalloy



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types
Genre: Angst, Death timer AU, Gen, Not Happy, Not Solaneglo, Not a Relationship, PJO, Sad, Suicide, TW: Suicide, Turn back, im sorry, kinda graphic, trigger warning, triggering, tw
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-26
Updated: 2018-02-26
Packaged: 2019-03-24 05:54:21
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 666
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13804824
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SpencerMalloy/pseuds/SpencerMalloy
Summary: Will Solace's class is sharing poems about the things they hope to do with their lives, what they can do in the years they have left. Everyone has a timer on their wrist, counting down to the day they die. Most of the time this is a good thing, a normal thing, a comforting thing. Something their teacher is supposed to help them cope with and embrace in health class--but Will can't help but think doing this with the Special Circumstance, Nico di Angelo, isn't all that good of an idea.





	Special Circumstance

**Author's Note:**

> Also posted on Wattpad, not stolen. Trigger Warning: mentions of suicide

     The Health teacher really should have known better than to do something like this, Will thought. Especially with a Special Circumstance in their class. On any other occasion, expressing how they felt about their death timers would have been good—after all, it was just a part of life. They would all one day need to accept that they were going to die. Everyone did, they, everyone they knew and everyone they loved had one very important thing in common: mortality. It was a constant comfort, knowing they had years and years left. It usually made for efficient planning, too--"If I'm going to make it to eighty-six then by God I'm taking a year off before college! I'm going to live my life while I'm still young!" Or, alternatively, "Well, if I'm only staying on this world for thirty-two years then I guess that means I don't need a retirement fund, do I?"

     So yes, for most the timers were a good thing. Stressful in the beginning, but it was a part of growing up to accept everyone's inevitable demise. The Health teacher was meant to teach them to cherish life just as much as she was to teach them about safe sex and saying no to drugs. But every single person in the room held their breath when Nico di Angelo stepped up to read his poem. Nico di Angelo, the Special Circumstance. Nico di Angelo, the boy who's timer had three short days left until zero. His voice was solemn and steady as he read.

_"Death it seems_   
_Bestills my dreams_   
_My hope, it aches_   
_Shatters, breaks_   
_And when falling_   
_Down_   
_It makes a_   
_Sound_   
_Of torment_   
_Unrelenting_   
_Resentment_   
_And guttural screams"_

     The tension in the air was thick and all encompassing. No one said a word as Nico, dressed from head to toe in black, stood rigid. He stared out at them after he finished. His gray eyes were dull but somehow still staring into their very souls, as if he were personally making eye contact with each of them only inches from their noses. Challenging them. He started to laugh.

     Will thought it was a sob at first because it was sudden and violent and that's what everyone would have expected from someone so close to death—but Nico's mouth was twisted into a wild grin. In all the time he'd been here no one had once seen him smile, and there he was, hysterically laughing. It was the most terrifying thing Will had ever seen. The laughter continued until Nico was doubled over, clutching his stomach.

     Will was scared the laughter would never stop, that he'd have to sit there with his mouth agape for the next three days, watching a dying boy choke on his own laughter. Maybe that was how it would happen for Nico. Most of the time people just dropped dead when their timers ran down, but there were certain instances when people would be killed in accidents—or murders. Maybe Nico would die from this—whatever this was. From laughing. Or from what he was laughing at.

     The fit stopped as abruptly as it had started. Nico stood back up, a smile splitting his face apart and his cheeks rosy. His eyes were alive now, more alive than Will had ever seen them. He took a bow.

     Nico walked out of class without looking back. The next day an even bigger aura of wrongness than Nico had been putting off for months filled the halls. The entire school was called in for an assembly. Will started to cry when he saw the grief counselors on stage two days early.

     Nico di Angelo had gone home that day and put a bullet through his head, Will later learned. He was the only person on record ever to die before his timer reached zero. His suicide note was short and sweet and it shook Will to his very core. He would never forget it.

_Get over yourselves._


End file.
